A Familiar Medic In The Med Bay
by warriorgramma
Summary: Rey visits a comatose Finn in the med bay and bonds with the attending medic, a familiar face who fought during the Clone Wars. Intrigued by the medic's story of how he winded up with the Resistance, Rey realizes that despite their vastly different backgrounds, they have a lot in common. (No romance, just fluffy friendship.)


Rey's hands grasped Finn's tightly, hoping the gesture would awaken him. It had been three days since they fought Kylo Ren together. She had spent half of those days preparing for her journey to find Luke, and the other half at Finn's bedside, waiting for him to wake up. Patience was a well-practiced virtue for Rey, but she was beginning to worry. Finn hadn't opened his eyes once since they brought him to the med bay.

"I'm no Jedi, but I don't think you can will someone awake with the Force," said a voice behind her. Rey turned to see one of the Resistance medics enter the room. He must taking care of Finn. Rey squinted her eyes as she looked at him. He was tall, fit, and well-postured, looking more like a soldier than a doctor. It looked like he was just starting to grow his hair out, and she saw bits of a tattoo under his dark hair. He looked young, not much older than her, but his visible skin was decorated with various scars, many deeply faded. There was something very strange about this man. Rey had never met him before, but she found his face familiar. Like she had passed him on the street, or viewed him in a holocron.

"Is he going to be alright?" Rey asked the medic. "Why hasn't he woken up yet?"

"For starters, he's hooked up to bacta," the medic began in a patient tone. He motioned to the tubes of liquid that connected Finn to a large tank behind them. "It induces coma for accelerated healing. He'll be hook up for about two more days. Typical protocol for lightsaber wounds. Those suckers cut deep."

Rey nodded and gave Finn's hands a squeeze, feeling silly that she was completely clueless about medical procedures. "Thank you for taking care of him," she told the medic. "I don't think I caught your name?"

"Kix," he replied. Rey looked at him expectantly, waiting for a surname. The medic laughed. "Just Kix. No last name. You're Rey, right? Got a last name?"

"Just Rey," she extended a hand and he shook it. "Have you been with the Resistance long? How long have you been a doctor?"

"A few months," Kix responded. "Not really a doctor. More of a combat medic. Been one my whole life."

"Is that how you know so much about lightsaber wounds?" she asked. "Have you tended to them before?"

"Yup, loads of time during the Clone Wars."

"The Clone Wars?" Suddenly, Rey's eyes lit up with a childlike excitement. "You're a clone! That's where I recognized you from." Her head swarmed with so many questions. What was it like fighting for the Grand Army of the Republic? Were there really 10,000 Jedi? Did you fight with any? Who were they? Were the Separatists really led by a Sith Lord? She thought about the military holocrons she had scavenged and attempted to decipher over the years. She could only recover bits and pieces of information, and it always left her with more questions than answers about the time before her own. Suddenly, something dawned on Rey and she raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Hang on," she began. "The Clone Wars was over 50 years ago. Pardon me asking, but how OLD are you?"

Kix smiled with amusement. "That question... has a couple answers. How many years have I been alive? About fifteen. How long ago was I born? Almost seventy years. Biologically how old am I? About thirty, I think." He saw Rey's bewildered look and continued. "I was frozen in stasis during the Clone Wars. Got unfrozen about a year ago by a group of pirates."

"That's incredible," Rey said in awe. "How did you find your way to the Resistance?"

"I like to fight. I like to help people. It's in my DNA." The medic suddenly looked sad. "I woke up and the whole galaxy was different. That something called the Empire wiped out the old Republic. That this new group called the First Order was trying to wipe out the new Republic. I wanted to do my part to protect the galaxy." He trailed off for a moment. "For my brothers, too. I'm doing this for them."

Rey felt a too familiar pang of sadness in her chest, feeling the weight of his implication. She had heard there were millions of clones during the Clone Wars. It must have been great to have that many brothers beside you. It must feel extremely lonely to have none of them now.

This clone was just like her. He didn't have a family anymore. They both had known only one way of life, then had been torn from it and thrown into something completely new, struggling to find their purpose again. Rey felt like she found hers, and she hoped Kix found his too.

"Anyways, your friend will be just fine." Kix nodded towards Finn. "That's good of you to check in on him. You two must have some history. How long have you known each other?"

"Only a few days..." Rey gazed thoughtfully towards Finn. "But it's feels like a lifetime. He's family."

"That must be nice," Kix replied with sincerity. Rey observed the clone's face. He was smiling, but his eyes were sad and expressed another emotion that Rey had seen in her own reflection all too often. She didn't have a word for it, but best described it as a combination of loneliness, longing, and hope. She thought again how similar she and Kix were, and hoped that one day he would be family too.


End file.
